Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V15_4/V15NO410.TXT

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Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 05:06:28
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V15 #410
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Wed, 11 Nov 92       Volume 15 : Issue 410

Today's Topics:
Edit your newsgroup header, please  was Re: Lunar "colony" reality check and Apollo fire
              First Saturn 5 Launch - 25 Years Ago Today
                  Japanese X-ray satellite: Astro_D
                     Lunar "colony" reality check
                           Man in space ...
                        Mars over the Moon???
                         Obscure Help  Needed
              Playback of Galileo Gaspara data is when?
                Swift-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth?

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Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 05:46:46 GMT
From: David Knapp <[e-mail]>
Subject: Edit your newsgroup header, please  was Re: Lunar "colony" reality check and Apollo fire
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Mechalas) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (steve hix) writes:
>>In article <roelle.721413660@uars_mag> roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle) writes:

There is no reason to have a thread going exactly and totally into two
different newsgroups. If you see this happening, please edit your headers
so we can limit the thread to one group or the other.




--
David Knapp                                   University of Colorado, Boulder
Perpetual Student                                 [e-mail]
Looks like hate *is* a family value after all and Colorado families are for it.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 07:58:21 GMT
From: Brett Vansteenwyk <[e-mail]>
Subject: First Saturn 5 Launch - 25 Years Ago Today
Newsgroups: sci.space

Spectacular launch, I remember it well even though I was 9.  The broadcaster
had to leave his chair to help hold the window in and there was a huge pad
fire afterwards.  It seemed that these partucular problems were solved by
the second launch.
            --Brett Van Steenwyk

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 03:49:15 GMT
From: Robert W Murphree <[e-mail]>
Subject: Japanese X-ray satellite: Astro_D
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

The Japanese scientific space agency, ISAS, is scheduled to launch
a 700 kg x-ray astronomy observatory february 3, 1993.  This
mission has as much effective collecting area as Einstein or ROSAT
and more spectral coverage though not, I understand, the resolution
of the previous two.  It continues as the fourth in a series of
Japanese x-ray astronomy satellites.  Ginga was the one before
ASTRO-D.

Is anyone prepared to summarize this mission and provide easy
comparisions with the capabilities and potentials for research
in ASTRO-D with Einstein and ROSAT?  Are there any articles
planned for publishing between now and february 3?  Is there
any address for public relations documents access (preferably)
in english) for ISAS or this mission?

if anybody knows anything, I would appreciate mail and/or posting
to sci.astro

------------------------------

Date: 11 Nov 1992 04:35:21 GMT
From: Bryan Butler <[e-mail]>
Subject: Lunar "colony" reality check
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joseph Versagg) writes:
>Sorry for rehashing what was posted earlier, or , even worse, what may now
>be common knowladge, but what is this about ice at the poles of Mercury?
>Since Mercury rotates, although slowly, ice would be baked off the surface,
>then would leak into space due to the low gravity.
>

we have a report in a recent issue of Science (23 October, 1992)
explaining our findings:

Mercury Radar Imaging: Evidence for Polar Ice
M. A. Slade, B. J. Butler, and D. O. Muhleman

which appears with 2 companion papers:

Radar Mapping of Mercury: Full-Disk Images and Polar Anomalies
J. K. Harmon, and M. A. Slade

The Thermal Stability of Water Ice at the Poles of Mercury
D. A. Paige, S. E. Wood, and A. R. Vasavada

our paper describes a radar experiment in which we detected
an anomalous radar return from the north polar region of
Mercury, using the combined VLA/Goldstone bistatic radar.
the polar region has 2 distinctive radar properties:
first, it is the brightest reflector on the portion of the
disk we imaged (about 80% of the surface), and second, its
"polarization ratio" is > 1.  the second property alone is
enough to indicate the presence of ices, but the interpretation
is certainly not unique.  however, the only surfaces
for which this property has been detected are icy ones (the
surfaces of the Galilean satellites, and the residual south polar
cap of Mars).  subsequently, the Harmon and Slade data from
Arecibo confirmed the presence of the north polar anomaly,
and found a similar one at the south pole (i should note here
that our experiment was at 3.5 cm, while the Arecibo experiment
was at 13 cm).  this clearly indicates that whatever is causing
the anomalous reflection is temperature related.  so, in order
to investigate the thermal regime of the mercurian surface,
we brought in Dave Paige and his co-workers to do the thermal
modelling.  their results indicate that permanently shadowed
regions near the poles of Mercury can get as cold as about 50
K (this is very cold, but remember that the Mariner 10 radiometer
measured physical temperatures as cold as 90 K on the nightside
equator).  the presence of large regions in permanent shadow is
facilitated by the fact that Mercury has a very small obliquity.
50 K is certainly cold enough for most ices to remain stable
over solar system time scales (billions of years).  the problem
is then how to get the ices there.  this is answered in part
in a paper soon to be published in JGR (the paper is going
through revision right now):

Mercury: Full Disk Radar Images, and the Detection and Stability
of Ice at the North Pole
B. J. Butler, D. O. Muhleman, and M. A. Slade

where i discuss more fully the experiment, and the sources,
sinks, migration and stability of ice on the mercurian surface.

note that all of this has reopened the discussion of polar
volatiles on the Moon.

    -bryan
     [e-mail]
      or [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 05:46:20 GMT
From: Steve Jenkins <jenkins@fritz>
Subject: Man in space ...
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Haines) writes:
>Isn't the point of hyperventilating to boost stores of ATP? Clearly
>you're not going to do much to increase the oxygen in the blood, but
>the brain doesn't need oxygen, it needs energy.

Well, *my* brain insists on oxygen.  Accept no substitutes!  The brain
has no capacity for anaerobic metabolism; its production of ATP is by
oxidative phosphorylation of ADP.  Hyperventilation does not raise the
amount of oxygen in the blood by any significant amount, and therefore
does not speed the production of ATP.

The key is the shape of the curve that relates oxygen content in blood
to oxygen partial pressure.  It's s-shaped (sigmoid, they say), and
the normal arterial PO2 of 90-100 mmHg is way up on the flat part of
the curve.  You can raise the partial pressure much higher without
appreciably increasing the O2 content.  As I said, hemoglobin is
pretty wonderful stuff.

>This is what I've always thought hyperventilating does, and it seems
>to work for me :-)

I suspect this is a higher cortical phenomenon that cannot be
explained in terms of cellular energetics. :-)

--
Steve Jenkins                  [e-mail]
Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory    [phone]

------------------------------

Date: 9 Nov 92 15:56:45 CST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Mars over the Moon???
Newsgroups: sci.space

I realize that any complete attempt to terraform a body should take into
account such things as retainablity of gasses and, hopefuly the body it's self
will have a modicum of material to work with. I still don't see why we
shouldn't experiment with techniques for creating at least a heavy gas blanket
around the Moon. This would seem like a pretty major problem to overcome within
a reasonable length of time. (a few decades?) The stuff that is being pushed at
the moment talks about setting up "Factorys" on Mars that would produce heavy
gasses that would be traped by its' gravity and then once the temp. starts
bumping up they would establish "Greenhouses" for plant life and start feeding
Oxygen and etc....... Anyway thats the BASIC gist of what I've seen on the
subject (Newspaper articals, Spots on programs such as "Beyond 2000" on A&E,
even stuff like Weakly Readers thats distributed to grade school children)
and it set me to wondering why the sudden hurry to get to Mars? It's like
everyone just forgot about the Moon once we got there and started focusing on
Mars. (By the by has anyone heard any further reports on the long term effects
of weightlessness on those Russian Cosmonaughts?)

Anyway I wasn't sugesting that we terraform the Moon, I was just wondering why
we seem to have skiped over it and was trying to get some more info on the
whole subject in general.

Thank you for your time all who've posted.......
                                                 Jay

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 01:36:58 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Obscure Help  Needed
Newsgroups: sci.space

    An embarrassing request: my  HP died and I discover I cannot
remember how to  do logs with a slide-rule,  nor  can I find my sr-related
texts. Clearly, I am  senile. Anyone out  there recall how  the damn  things
work?

                            James Nicoll

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 04:13:43 GMT
From: Robert W Murphree <[e-mail]>
Subject: Playback of Galileo Gaspara data is when?
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

The playback and reception on earth of the rest of the data from
galileo's flyby of the astreroid gaspara last year is scheduled for
this month.  Assuming it takes some time to process the data for
"instant science" will there be a press release and when will it be?

------------------------------

Date: 8 Nov 92 19:06:25 +1700
From: Dale Parish <[e-mail]>
Subject: Swift-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth?
Newsgroups: sci.space

>>   I understand that it is pretty unlikely that Swift-Tuttle will hit
>>   earth in 2126. However, I would like to know what would happen in the
>>   case such a big object would collide with our planet? I am not sure
>
>>You die, I die, Everybody dies!
>
> Calm down. Do you expect to live until 2126? OK.


Wouldn't you like to believe that by that time, *someone* will be living
on the surface of another orbiting body?

------------------------------


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From: Philip Young <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: The Big Picture
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Date: 10 Nov 92 03:26:54 GMT
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Given our propensity to fling hardware into the heavens, and our desire
to get a good handle on what's very old and far away, has anybody done
any serious investigation of the possibility of tacking astronomical eyes
on craft headed for interstellar space which would be suitable for
verrrrrrrrrrrry long baseline interferometry?  We're not just talking
Earth orbit here. Seems to me we have the clocks, the computers, the
comms.  What would be the shortest frequency we could realistically
deal with?  Could costs be contained with a standardized, shrink-wrapped
observatory package?  What might we discover with a (radio?) telescope
whose effective diameter increases 10E+4 km/sec or more for the forseeable
future?

--
Philip R. Young                  | 1.79E+12 furlongs per fortnight ...
Data General Australia Pty. Ltd. | It's not just a good idea, it's the law.


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End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 410
------------------------------